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How to Record a Google Meet Meeting: Manual vs Automated

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Author: Winona Rajamohan
Winona Rajamohan
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Quick summary:

Purpose: Learn how to record Google Meet meetings effectively, from simple in-app methods to API solutions for businesses.

Key Focus: Compares Meet’s built-in recording feature with scalable options like the Nylas Notetaker API to capture meeting recordings and transcripts.

What You’ll Learn:

  • Step-by-step guide to using Google Meet’s built-in recording functionality for quick, manual captures.
  • Limitations of Google Meet’s recording for business use (e.g., manual process, storage issues, no calendar integration).
  • Four methods to capture Google Meet recordings automatically, including external tools, desktop apps, Google Meet APIs, and live streaming.
  • How to integrate the Nylas Notetaker API for automated recording across Google Meet and other platforms with AI transcription and compliance.

Who It’s For: Individual users needing simple note-taking or developers/builders creating scalable meeting solutions for CRMs, project tools, or compliance needs.

Takeaway: Discover when to use Google Meet’s basic recorder versus tools like Nylas designed for app development and integrations with business software. 

One of the best things about Google Meet is how convenient and well-connected it is. If you have a Gmail account, all you need to do is head to your Google Calendar, create a meeting, and you can add a Google Meet link without any additional steps. 

Do it once, and you’ll see Google Meet links automatically added to all your calendar invites without any manual action on your end. 

But recording your Google Meet meetings automatically isn’t as straightforward. 

Your first instinct might be to enable Google Meet recordings across your organization and let Gemini AI handle the extra meeting intelligence. But this still limits you from recording meetings without host actions or syncing them up with your calendar. 

Let’s start by showing you the simple answer to getting a Google Meet recording, and talk about automation from there. 

The quick answer: Recording a Google Meet meeting in-app

For immediate recording needs, you can use Google Meet’s built-in functionality. It’s important to note that you cannot record Google Meet meetings without meeting specific Google Workspace requirements.  

Here’s what you need to know. 

Before you start recording…

  • Check your Google Workspace plan: Recording is only available on specific Google Workspace editions, like the Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise, and Education Plus plans. 
  • Verify permissions: You must be the meeting host, co-host, or from the same organization as the individual who created the meeting. If you’re part of a Google Workspace, your administrator must first enable recordings. 
  • Use a computer: Recording is only available on desktop browsers—mobile devices cannot initiate Google Meet recordings.

Recording your meeting

  1. Start or join your meeting as the host or co-host with a paid Google Workspace account
  2. Click “Activities” in the bottom-right corner, then select “Recording”
  3. Start recording. All participants will be notified immediately. 
  4. Stop recording manually or let it end when everyone leaves

Accessing your recording

  • Recordings are automatically saved to the meeting organizer’s Google Drive in a “Meet Recordings” folder. 
  • Google sends shareable links to the recording via email to both the meeting organizer and whoever started the recording.
  • Recordings are usually available within a few hours, with captions potentially taking longer to generate.

The limitations of recording with Google Meet

  • No built-in automation: The recording feature in Google Meet can only be controlled via the Google Meet UI. 
  • Storage requirements: Recordings require sufficient Google Drive storage space. If your Drive is full, the recording option becomes disabled entirely.
  • 8-hour recording limit: Each individual recording session caps at 8 hours. You’ll need to manually restart the recording if your event lasts longer than this timeframe. 
  • No customization: You can’t modify consent workflows or recording quality beyond Google’s defaults. 
  • Tricky integration with Google Calendar: Building your own integration between Google Calendar events and Google Meet conference records requires very complex logic. You have to build for situations like people joining meetings early, leaving and rejoining multiple times, or creating unintentional conference records. A single calendar event can generate multiple Meet conference records, making automated mapping hard to do. 

4 ways to capture Google Meet meetings automatically

When Google Meet’s built-in recording isn’t enough, here are the options that you can configure to capture meeting recordings without manual action. 

External meeting recording tools

How it works: Configure apps like Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, and Grain to monitor your calendar and automatically join Google Meet calls. Once set up, they record conversations and generate transcripts without you having to remember starting a recording.

Best for: Individual users and teams who want automatic meeting notes without technical setup. Works with free Google Meet accounts and doesn’t require Google Workspace paid plans.

Limitations: Standalone tools offer limited APIs for custom integrations, making it challenging to sync data with business systems that don’t have pre-built integrations.

Google Meet REST API

How it works: Build automated processes that retrieve completed meeting recordings and transcripts after meetings end.

Best for: Organizations building automated workflows for meeting data archival, CRM integration, or compliance systems. Ideal for enterprise teams who need to systematically process meeting recordings at scale.

Limitations:

  • The API does not help you start recordings automatically. You can only use it to get post-meeting recording files after hitting the record button in the Google Meet UI.
  • You’ll need to create a Google Cloud project to use Google Workspace APIs and add-ons or apps.
  • Use cases are limited to creating meeting spaces, getting meeting metadata, and getting files like recordings and transcripts after meetings end. 

Google Meet Media API 

How it works: Access real-time audio and video streams during active Google Meet conferences using WebRTC. You can use this API to build an automatic recording system that processes meeting content in real-time without waiting for post-meeting file generation.

Best for: Developers building custom applications with real-time AI processing and sub-second latency requirements. 

Limitations:

  • Currently only available as part of the Developer Preview Program. Your Google Cloud project, OAuth principal, and all meeting participants must be enrolled in the program. 
  • Requires advanced WebRTC development skills and 4+ Mbps bandwidth per connection. 
  • Cannot access encrypted meetings or those with watermarks. 

Use Nylas Notetaker

How it works: Single API endpoint that deploys meeting bots across Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams. Send a meeting URL, get back recordings, transcripts, and structured data through webhooks. Integrates directly with Google Calendar to automatically join scheduled meetings.

Best for: Product builders who want the benefits of automated Google Meet recordings and Google Calendar integrations.

Limitations: Meeting participants will see meeting bots join, which may not work for scenarios requiring invisible recording. Nylas is best suited to meet regulatory requirements for organizations needing clear documentation of recording consent.

How to schedule a meeting bot to join a Google Meet with the Nylas Notetaker

We’ll quickly walk through how to use Nylas in your product or business applications to automatically deploy a meeting bot to a Google Meet and sync with Google Calendar events. 

Before you start, make sure you have:

  • A Nylas developer account with API access
  • Your Nylas API key from the dashboard
  • A Grant ID for the user whose meetings you want to record
  • Google Meet links (either from Google Calendar events or manual input)

Step 1

Set up your development environment with the necessary credentials.

Development environment setup

# Install the Nylas SDK
npm install nylas

# Set environment variables
export NYLAS_API_KEY="your_api_key_here"
export NYLAS_GRANT_ID="your_grant_id_here"

Import packages and initialize Nylas SDK

import Nylas from 'nylas';

// Initialize the Nylas client
const nylas = new Nylas({
  apiKey: process.env.NYLAS_API_KEY,
});

const grantId = process.env.NYLAS_GRANT_ID;

Step 2

If you don’t already have a Grant ID, you’ll need to authenticate a user and obtain one through Nylas’s OAuth flow.

Obtain Grant ID

"41009df5-bf11-4c97-aa18-b285b5f2e386"; // Example Grant ID

Step 3

Deploy a meeting bot to join and record a specific Google Meet.

Deploy a meeting bot

// Create a notetaker for a specific Google Meet
async function createMeetingRecorder(meetingLink, meetingTitle) {
  try {
    const notetaker = await nylas.notetakers.create({
      identifier: grantId,
      requestBody: {
        meetingLink: meetingLink, // e.g., "https://meet.google.com/abc-defg-hij"
        name: `Meeting Recorder - ${meetingTitle}`,
        settings: {
          speakerLabels: true,        // Enable speaker identification
          audioRecording: true,       // Record audio
          videoRecording: false,      // Audio-only for efficiency
          transcription: true         // Generate transcripts
        }
      }
    });
    
    console.log(`Notetaker created with ID: ${notetaker.data.id}`);
    return notetaker.data.id;
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Error creating notetaker:', error);
  }
}

// Example usage
const meetingId = await createMeetingRecorder(
  "https://meet.google.com/abc-defg-hij", 
  "Weekly Google Workspace Sync"
);

OR use the Nylas Calendar Sync to automatically solve Google Calendar integration challenges:

Deploy a meeting bot with Nylas calendar sync

// Set up automatic Notetaker deployment for Google Calendar meetings
// This solves the complex mapping issues between Calendar events and Meet conferences
async function setupCalendarSync() {
  try {
    const calendarSync = await nylas.notetakers.calendarSync.create({
      identifier: grantId,
      requestBody: {
        // Monitor the primary Google Calendar
        calendarId: "primary",
        
        // Define rules for when to automatically deploy Notetakers
        rules: {
          // Only join meetings with 3-10 participants (avoids large all-hands)
          participantCount: {
            min: 3,
            max: 10
          },
          
          // Only join meetings that have Google Meet links
          requireConferencing: true
        },
        
        // Configuration for all auto-deployed Notetakers
        settings: {
          speakerLabels: true,     // Identify who said what
          audioRecording: true,    // Record audio
          videoRecording: false,   // Audio-only to save storage
          transcription: true      // Generate transcripts
        }
      }
    });
    
    console.log('Calendar Sync configured:', calendarSync.data.id);
    return calendarSync.data.id;
    
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Error setting up Calendar Sync:', error);
  }
}

Step 4

Set up webhook handling to process transcripts and recordings when they’re complete, or send direct API requests.

Download the media files

// Method 1: Webhook notifications (recommended for real-time processing)
app.post('/webhooks/notetaker', async (req, res) => {
  const webhookData = req.body;
  
  // Check for media availability notification
  if (webhookData.type === 'notetaker.media' && 
      webhookData.data.object.state === 'available') {
    
    const notetakerId = webhookData.data.object.id;
    const mediaUrls = webhookData.data.object.media;
    
    console.log('Recording available:', mediaUrls.recording);
    console.log('Transcript available:', mediaUrls.transcript);
    
    // Download and process the files
    await processRecordingAndTranscript(mediaUrls.recording, mediaUrls.transcript);
  }
  
  res.status(200).send('Webhook received');
});

async function processRecordingAndTranscript(recordingUrl, transcriptUrl) {
  try {
    // Your custom processing logic here
    // Integrate with your CRM, compliance systems, or AI models
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Error processing meeting data:', error);
  }
}

With meeting data and calendar automation set up, you can add AI meeting notetakers to your business apps and internal tools with the Nylas API. Developers can build meeting features in: 

  • CRM platforms: Monitor Google Calendar for client meetings so you can automatically deploy bots to Google Meet calls and retrieve files to feed into your product for deal progression updates, objection handling, or updating CRM records.
  • Applicant tracking systems: Capture candidate interviews on Google Meet to generate structured feedback that flows right into your ATS. A calendar integration helps you get meeting recorders set up and ready to go on the busiest interview days without you having to think about it.
  • Project management and collaboration tools: Turn Google Meet discussions into notes and action items. A Google Calendar integration will help you detect specified meeting types so you can focus on building features that sync meeting notes to email, Slack, Asana, Jira, and more.
  • Training and enablement: Turn Google Meet recordings and transcripts into training documentation, summaries, and action items.

How are you recording your next Google Meet meeting? 

If you’re an individual user looking for personal note-taking, then Google Meet isn’t the best option because of its limited permissions to its premium plans like Business Plus, Enterprise, and Education. External AI notetakers and desktop recorders are going to be your best bet. 

But if you’re looking to integrate meeting recording data to a SaaS application, internal app, AI models and workflows, then you have two options: 

  • Custom builds with Google Meet API: You can use this API if your application is mostly interacting with Google Meet meetings. You will need to commit time to setting up on Google Cloud, ensuring recording compliance, building the calendar integration, and ongoing maintenance as the API changes over time.  
  • Ship fast with Nylas: Choose Nylas Notetaker when you want to add meeting recording, transcription, and calendar integration to your product without building infrastructure or maintaining platform integrations internally. You get cross-platform coverage (Zoom + Google Meet + Teams) with enterprise compliance built-in. 

Ready to get started?

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